ANKARA
He stated that Turkey has nothing to do with U.S. sanction decision and said, "Turkey has the 16th largest economy in the world and it is a strong country in its region. In this sense, it is clear what agreements we go with. We attribute to the decisions of the United Nations."
Caglayan has added that the European Union (EU) is such an important partner for Turkey and said that the shrinking demand in the EU decreased Turkey's exportation figures to there.
On the other hand, Caglayan expressed that exportation to the U.S. has started to increase.
He added that the exportation figures in the nine months of 2012 reached last year's total exportation.
He said, "I would like to express my point of view in the scope of U.S. sanctions. Turkey has more than 20 thousand exportation items. We export to everywhere in the world. Our exportation to the EU drops but the rise of exportation to other places does not happen out of nowhere. This is related with our developing bilateral relations in the fields of economy and politics."
Turkey and the US cannot reflect their relations to trade
Turkish Economy Minister Caglayan stated that the US and Turkey relations are wide in scope and old and added, "First of all we are two ally countries. There is nothing to say about our political alliance and diplomatic cooperation but we cannot reflect this on trade" in Ankara on Monday.
Minister Caglayan received Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Susan Combs and her delegation in the ministry.
Caglayan said "There are around 300 Turkish firms in Texas and their total annual endorsement is over one billion dollars. On the other hand, there are more than 400 Texas firms who have business relations with Turkey. Considering these, Texas is one of the six states we have targeted. Our export to Texas in 2009 was 1.4 billion dollars, it increased to 1.8 billion dollars in 2010 and to 3.7 billion dollars in 2011. This is not a magical touch, it is just the result of our ministry working at state level in the US."
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Susan Combs emphasized the importance of trade together with tax and incentive policies.
